Anorexia cases rising among 5-year-olds, doctor says

OTTAWA – The attention on obesity and prevention programs in schools may be more damaging than beneficial as some doctors are finding children as young as five are being treated for such eating disorders as anorexia and bulimia.

Dr. Leora Pinhas, who heads the eating-disorders program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, said she is seeing more younger children in her program now compared to five years ago when the majority of her in-patients were teens.

Recent statistics coming out of Britain reveal that in the past three years, 197 children from ages five to nine in the United Kingdom sought treatment for an eating disorder.

In the same period in Canada, the number sat at 166 children from ages five to 12, said Dr. Pinhas.

Dr. Pinhas said eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia tend to be generational and can pass through three generations of women.

A 2005 study regarding early onset eating disorders co-authored by Pinhas found that anorexia has been on the rise over the last 50 years and is the third most common chronic illness affecting adolescent girls.

“We see children in sports like gymnastics, skating and ballet where they get clear messages that how tall they are and how heavy they are will affect whether they can be competitive,” said Prof. Pinhas, adding that kids in these situations are told to lose weight and are rewarded if they do.

She also says the magnitude of our attention on obesity and putting overweight people in the same category has blurred the definition of obesity.

“Someone with a BMI of 25 is overweight; someone with a BMI of 45 is obese, but it’s seen as the same thing,” Prof. Pinhas said.

Prevention programs in schools are also influencing children to cut the fat, said Prof. Pinhas, who asks her own kids to be excused from the lectures.

“Kids are learning about good foods and bad foods. For the wrong kid to be told sugar is bad for you, then they go home and don’t eat sugar and will also think other things must be bad,” said Prof. Pinhas. “Kids are very black-and-white thinkers. There are no greys; it’s all or nothing.”